Search results for: “minidisc”
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Goodbye minidisc, Hello Zoom H2
I’ve finally broken down and abandoned my beloved minidisc for mobile audio recording. I held out for as long as I could, which wasn’t hard. Until recently the format that never caught on (in the US) was the best portable digital audio recording format, especially when Sony finally unveiled Hi-MD four years ago finally allowing…
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Minidisc in Bizzarro World, or, It’s a Wonderful Format
CNET.uk has a feature on “Format wars: the tech that should have won,” sizing up some media and computer systems that lost out in the marketplace, despite their technical advantages. The article imagines a world where technologies like the 8-track and Betamax predominated, instead of cassettes and VHS. Two of my favorites–that I still use–are…
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Uploading the Old Minidiscs
I gave the new MZ-RH1 minidisc recorder a spin last night and I have to report that it works as advertised. I tried out three minidiscs recorded about 6 years ago in regular minidisc SP format and they uploaded to my PC and converted to WAV without a hitch. All these minidiscs were airchecks recorded…
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Minidisc Arrival
My new Sony MZ-RH1 (oh, how I wish electronics could have actual names, rather than arcane model numbers) arrived this afternoon, one day early. I went home to make sure it didn’t sit out on the front step unattended for half the day. I’ve had a chance to unpack it and take a quick look,…
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Latest, Greatest Minidisc Recorder Now Available and In Demand
Without fanfare or any real announcement from Sony, the MZ-RH1 minidisc recorder is now shipping from a variety of sources in North America. This recorder, which may be the last new model ever produced, finally fulfills most of the promise of the minidisc format… a mere fourteen years after MD was first introduced. Already it…
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Sudden Positive Interest in Minidisc
It’s strange, minidisc had been pretty much left for dead by the mainstream, despite a pretty big installed user base. Now Sony defies expectation by releasing a new recorder that sheds just about every drawback of the format and a few positive articles pop up in the geek mediasphere. About a week ago, the Crave…
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New Minidisc Recorder Confirmed, and Even Better than Expected
Minidisc.org has confirmation on the new minidisc recorder, MZ-RH1, that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. The new unit is remarkable both because it’s a sign that Sony isn’t ready to kill minidisc just yet. But also, this model does away with several bothersome limitations. The MZ-RH1 now allows any audio recorded via…
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Minidisc Not Dead Yet
Like many long-standing minidisc users, I’ve been wondering when Sony will finally kill off this format. I do not live in a fantasy world, so I do realize that the tag-team of iPods, cheap MP3 players and an increasing number of high-quality portable digital audio recorders that use flash memory will spell the eventual end…
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New, Improved Minidisc Software
SonicStage is the software that Sony provides for downloading and uploading audio from its Hi-MD minidisc recorders (and just download to its MDLP recorders). SonicStage has been much maligned for being clunky, slow, and for the digital rights management which limited how many times an MP3 could be downloaded to minidiscs and how many times…
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New Minidisc Units Starting Ship & Why Photo MD Is Just 1.3 MP
Despite the fact that I write about such potentially ire-raising counter-cultural things as pirate radio and express an anarchist attitude about media and politics, the thing I get more e-mail about is actually minidisc. Within the last few months I’ve gotten more than a dozen questions about the new Hi-MDs asking for advice on buying…